Photo: Cora Pursley via Dupe Save Story Save this story Save Story Save this story For over 70 years, the Cannes Lions festival has welcomed marketing and advertising suits to the South of France for a week of schmoozing and dealmaking. In recent years, though, a new crowd has descended on the French Riviera: influencers. And in 2026, they were front and center, speaking on panels, attending lunches, dinners and parties, and taking meetings along the Croisette.
For some, it was the farthest they’d gone into the business side of content marketing. Cannes may be a fabulous setting for a conference, but it’s a conference nonetheless.
For most influencers, they’ve built followings online because they’re funny or aspirational, not because of their business savvy. Now, brands more often want them to take on the role of representatives at industry events — and to contribute to marketing strategies back home.
“The role of an influencer/creator in 2026 looks very different from what it was,” says influencer marketing agency Ponte Firm founder Shana Davis. Caroline Wilson, an executive in UTA’s brand advisory group, refers to creators as “a marketing strategy” in and of themselves, as opposed to a prong or add-on in a larger marketing machine separate from them.
These days, creators tend to be part of brand campaigns, rather than simply amplify them. Nikita Walia, strategy director at brand and venture studio Unnamed, who sits at the cusp of creator and brand strategist, thinks of creators as businesspeople. “They understand their audiences, build their own intellectual property and make sophisticated decisions about positioning, partnerships and growth,” she says. “The relationship is moving from ‘make this content for us’ toward ‘help us determine what is worth making in the first place’.”
As Vogue Business predicted at the beginning of the year, creators are being brought into the brand fold to act not just as talent or marketers, but as consultants. This is the direction that the creator economy has been evolving toward in recent years, Davis says. “Creators are being taken more seriously, and the ones riding that next wave of success are growing beyond one-off content and thinking longer-term.” Often, though, brands don’t publicize the strategy work creators are doing with them.
Influencers at a Spotify event at Cannes Lions.
Brandon Edelman, a TikToker known as Bran Flakezz with 1.4 million followers, posted on the ground from the festival that Cannes Lions was like “Spring Break for your boss’s boss”, and marveled at the business execs letting loose during late nights. Edelman, who worked on the social media team at Gopuff before becoming a full-time creator, regularly posts content about the world of navigating brand partnerships and says he’s been hired by companies to consult with his team on creator partnership best practices. “A lot of brands are like, ‘We need to use creators also to talk back to us and be like, ‘Here’s what we’re doing wrong and here’s what we should be doing.’’”
On the top-tier talent scale, at Cannes Lions, Coach launched &Coach, a content series co-created with Gen Z creators and talent including Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese, Malala and PinkPantheress. The project will continue to evolve and influence how Coach works with creators behind the scenes. Beauty brands have led the charge on this strategy; earlier this month, Laura Mercier launched The Laura Mercier Collective, which is a group of creators hi…